, announced its new Treo 680. The new consumer-aimed smartphone is much like the 650 Cingular sells now, though it’s a slicker device.
The 680 does away with the 650’s antenna, rounds out the corners, and comes in four fashion colors: Graphite, Cimson, Arctic, and Copper. The Bluetooth has been upped to version 1.2, and the phone app is modernized, as well. Sorry, no WiFi.
The 680 also loses the top-mounted SIM card for the more standard behind-the-battery configuration, but the popular ringer switch stays, as does Infrared. Otherwise, the stats were pretty much in line with what we were expecting including the VGA camera, 320×320 touchscreen, 64MB RAM, Quad band GSM, GPRS/EDGE support, SDIO and all the other goodness the Treo is known for.
In addition to the hardware and phone changes, most of the Palm-branded included software gets a bump, and new media features are included. For example, the 680 marks the first PalmOS-based Treo to support WMV/WMA natively. In addition, it has integrated support for Podcasts and streaming Internet radio. And Google is including a Google Maps app, with real-time traffic info.
Palm hasn’t discussed particular pricing, as it’s set by their carrier partners (Cingular for now, perhaps T-Mobile? Don’t hold your breath), but they did note that they expected this new Treo to debut at a lower price point than any other Treo before. This is great news, as the Treo has always been considered by most to be a premium item.
We’ll update as more information comes in.
Treo 680 [Product Page]